15 Batman Movies Which Were Almost Made

Undoubtedly the best superhero without any superpowers, Batman is one of the most iconic characters of all time and has cemented its legacy in the form of blockbuster movies. Apart from movies directed by Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan, take a look at the 15 Batman movies which were almost made:

15. Adam West’s Batman

Starring in the 1960s ABC show Batman and its theatrical film, Adam West has donned the mantle of the bat more than any other actor yet he was an utter moron when it came to coming up with the idea of a movie starring the Dark Knight.

During an interview with Rolling Stone, West revealed that he pitched an idea for a Batman movie in which the superhero would return from retirement to fight an original villain called Sun Yat Mars. He would be an alien and use Batman’s villains as his minions called Marsies.

The movie would have also had Robin as a “singing medical intern”. Not so surprisingly, the idea was never utilized.

14. Superbat

Imagine a hybrid of Batman and Super-Man – Superbat! Sounds stupid, right? Turns out that Adam West revealed to Rolling Stones in the same interview that once he failed to buy the movie rights of Batman, he decided to just rip him off with another DC superhero.

“I also wrote a thing called Superbat when it was clear I’d never get film rights to the Batman character. It was a hybrid of Batman and Superman who came from another galaxy, but he now lives in this vast cave.”

Thankfully, the idea never came to fruition.

13. Batman in Outer Space

Among the horrible Batman movie ideas, Batman in Outer Space has to be the worst. In the 1970s, CBS was interested in producing the movie and producer Michael Uslan had purchased the movie rights of the character to “make the definitive, dark, serious version of Batman, the way Bob Kane and Bill Finger had envisioned him in 1939. A creature of the night; stalking criminals in the shadows.”

Ulsan pitched the idea to several movie studios including Columbia Pictures and United Artists and – not so surprisingly – all of them ditched the idea of the galactic Batman.

12. Return of the Batman

After Michael Uslan failed to make the idea of Batman in Outer Space into a reality, he tweaked the screenplay a lot which resulted in Return of the Batman. Based on the storyline, The Dark Knight Returns, the adapted screenplay actually gained some attention.

With the addition of several producers, dozens of twists and turns, the Return of the Batman was almost entirely changed and would slowly transition to the next entry of the article.

11. The Batman

Based on the limited series Batman: Strange Apparitions, Tom Mankiewicz completed the script for The Batman which would focus on Batman and Dick Grayson aka Robin’s origins with the addition of Joker and Rupert Thorne as villains.

With a budget of $20 million and the release date of mid-1985, it looked like the movie would actually get made but the script went through nine rewrites by nine separate writers, a long time for losing interest in the project and the movie was never made.

10. Bruce Wayne (TV Series)

Apart from the movie ideas that never made to the big screen, a television show focusing on Bruce Wayne’s tenure from losing his parents to becoming Batman was planned and even went in development phase but due to creative differences, the project was abandoned.

Surprisingly, the leaked script of the pilot episode received positive reviews. The project was rethought and turned into Smallville – focusing on Clark Kent before becoming Super-Man. On an interesting note, the concept of Bruce Wayne was revitalized on Fox with the creation of Gotham starring Ben McKenzie as James Gordon.

The overdose of characters did not stop there as Harley Quinn was planned to appear as a supporting character. Once Batman & Robin received horrible reviews and became a box office flop, the chances of Batman Unchained immediately died along with the Batman franchise.

8. Tim Burton’s Batman Forever

Though Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever was somewhat watchable, it could have been a lot different, darker and quite frankly better if Tim Burton remained as the director. Though Batman and Batman Returns were critical and commercial successes, Warner Bros. attempted to make more money by merchandise sales but could not do so due to the movies’ dark tone.

Deciding to remove Burton and give the charge to Schumacher in order to make the upcoming Batman Forever more kid-friendly, the movie dramatically contrasted from the predecessors and featured Val Kilmer as the new Batman since Michael Keaton declined a $15 million salary to reprise the role after being unsatisfied with Schumacher’s vision.